Church of England volunteer Jay Hulme was subjected to a campaign of abuse, harassment and stalking by a lay preacher in Leicester after he turned down her advances. When he complained to his bishop, Martyn Snow, Snow not only refused to take action but accused him of witchcraft.
"Somebody had given a statement that I had been seen in the church, in the darkness, with a candle – and they thought I was conducting a seance. For clarity, I was praying with a candle in the dark, because that's a thing that Christians do," says Jay. … "It felt like an enormous gut punch. These made-up allegations were being presented to me by a person with the power of a bishop, in a meeting which I suddenly realised I had no control over," says Jay.
… "She [Venessa] had somehow managed to make a bishop become part of her stalking campaign of harassment and threats, and use his power and position, and I couldn't believe it was happening."
The BBC today published an exposé of a cover-up that'll be grim reading for those hoping for change in the church. Hulme was, of course, just one of many victims. But the Church kept promoting the problem until there were so many—the BBC identifies 30—that exposure was inevitable. She was ultimately charged by prosecutors, pleaded guilty to stalking, and received a non-custodial sentence which prohibits her from contacting her victims.
The BBC has now learned that shortly before that, the bishop did tell Venessa to step back from ministry because of "her behaviour", though it is not known what this refers to. He also later revoked her licence to preach, after what's described as "new evidence" coming to light. The diocese also suggested she go on leave.
But none of these things were made public and did not stop the unrelenting stalking of Jay.
The "witchcraft" accusation adds a sensational edge to a mundane case of harassment. If it suggests vulgar superstition in the minds of church leaders, it's better understood as jargon, facilitating a well-worn institutional strategy to derail claims of misconduct. In fancy terms, poisoning the well. In popular idiom, victim blaming. In emerging scholarship, institutional betrayal. In legal terms, secondary victimization.
Bishop Snow's efforts to conceal the misconduct should be a red flag. On the contrary, he was elevated to the House of Lords is now a top candidate to become the next leader of the Church of England.
